The police in the Austrian town of Linz has responded to accusations of covering up sex crimes. It claims that the security services cannot go public with rapes because of the need to protect the victims. The press release is in response to accusations levelled in the weekend, as news of two sexual assaults has surfaced.

On Friday 16 June a 35-year-old inhabitant of Linz was assaulted in the Mozart parking garage in the centre of Linz. Her attacker was a 38-year-old Slovak, who is said to have pulled her behind a car and brutally raped her. The victim knew the suspect fleetingly. The man was arrested on Sunday, but an official police media statement has not been published yet.

Before that, on 9 June, a graduate student at a local school was sexually assaulted. The young woman was up at five to go to the bakery, when she was grabbed by two foreigners and dragged into a basement. There the men had their way with her, injuring the woman in the process. No official statement has been made in this case either. Meanwhile, spokesman for the police David Furtner confirms both cases, but says that the decision to not make them public was made on a solid basis. The ongoing police investigations called for secrecy, especially in the case of the Mozart parking garage case, in which the victim knew the suspect. Both investigations made little headway.

Furtner declined to comment on the Basement-case, but stressed that there will be information forthcoming shortly:

“I personally guarantee, that no fact is being withheld. That goes for drunk politicians as well as criminal asylum seekers. We have never covered-up up something. Since what happened on New Year’s Eve in Cologne, every police unit understands that it is not the long arm of politics.“